It was two weeks ago that Buzz Bissinger took on Deadspin’s Will Leitch during an HBO special hosted by Bob Costas, and I’m getting along like any survivor not located at ground zero of the atomic detonation: I avoided the initial blast, but the fallout lingered for a week before the winds finally changed, leaving me irradiated with media bloviation. My symptoms: exhaustion, nausea, headaches.

Everyone had a response, and a response to the response, and the newly MSM-recognized commenters responded to the responses to other responses until the fractal spun into the minutiae of oblivion. Bissinger got blasted by everyone, apologized but stuck to his guns, then performed a round of interviews in the blogosphere to show his non-maniacal asshole side. Leitch responded with typically circumspect Leitchiness, then got blind-sided by Jason Whitlock for his casual laziness toward race, causing more Leitch circumspection before Whitlock participated in a follow-up interview with FanHouse which maybe-but-maybe-not added to the mental gridlock and exhaustion that led to Whitlock’s leave of absence.

Keep in mind that (a) the above recap is only a fraction of the scores of thousands of words spent on this subject across the Internet, and (b) for something that is supposedly a sports story, none of these people are athletes.

Whitlock, before announcing his Waffle House walkabout, closed his FanHouse interview with this:

Blogs are suffering from the same problem as the MSM. We think if we ignore our shortcomings, no one will notice them. Some smart blogger will fill the void and begin the process of holding blogs accountable. There’s an audience for that. There is a good-old-boys network among bloggers that will eventually get shaken up. Lips will get removed from asses at some point. This is America. There’s always someone available to call bulls—.

This prompted some introspective hand-wringing from The Big Lead (“Hmmm, maybe we should critique blogs”), making it the unofficial response to the response to the response to the response to the response to the story not about sports but about writers talking about how to cover sports.

In order to keep this endless trolleyfuck going, I’ve prepared a statement on behalf of Kissing Suzy Kolber. Ready? Ahem…

Now, go back to finding some more pics of Leinart feeling up some ASU co-ed or Brady Quinn grabbing some guy’s crank.

05.15.08 at 1:12 pm

Punch Rockgroin

When does football start?

05.15.08 at 1:15 pm

wrecking_ball

Blog policing? Really?

The line for KSK Ombudsman applicants will be a short one.

05.15.08 at 1:17 pm

Upstate Underdog

“My symptoms: exhaustion, nausea, headaches.”

At least your hair didn’t fall out like Bissinger’s.

05.15.08 at 1:22 pm

Big Daddy Drew

YOU’RE the good ol’ boys?!

05.15.08 at 1:24 pm

Mr Snrub

YOU PEOPLE?

*stabs someone’s father, passes knife to Charlie Murphy*

05.15.08 at 1:31 pm

Otto Man

I like the way this Snrub thinks!

05.15.08 at 1:52 pm

Monkey Business

Isn’t the whole point of blogging to be held accountable by your audience? If one of the regulars writes something shitty here that’s either horrendously inaccurate or incredibly offensive (and not in the “Hines Wald” kind of way, which is clearly satire), they’re going to have a hundred angry commenters leaping down their throat faster than you can hit the Edit button. Moreover, every other sports blog in existence will be talking about it within an hour, thus leading to a discussion of “How far is too far?” and all that crap.

My point is, blogging is better because writers are held accountable instantaneously, not only by their peers, but by their audience as well. Consequently, Jason Whitlock is an idiot.

But we knew that already.

So, when are we getting more horse porn?

05.15.08 at 1:53 pm

Grimey

Pictured: Captain Planet’s asshole

05.15.08 at 2:06 pm

Shinons

Mono!…Doh!

05.15.08 at 2:16 pm

Hit Dog

Monkey Business is right. I might have bought a copy of the New York Times and accidentally supported the (now thankfully over) career of Yankee ball-swaddler and anti-statistics/reason/evolution columnist Murray Chass, but if you go to a blog on a regular basis, you’re essentially supporting all of its content/existence. Mainstream media buffers some fucking idiots because like Leitch wrote much of a book on, you don’t have a lot of choices sometimes beyond the Worldwide Leader.

Someone will create a site that critiques blogs like Fire Joe Morgan critiques mainstream baseball media. And if it isn’t funny, no one will give the slimmest of a shit.

05.15.08 at 2:23 pm

Snowflake the Dog

Hey, just because I love the cock doesn’t make me gay.

05.15.08 at 3:20 pm

Holding Down the Couch Springs

“Some smart blogger will fill the void and begin the process of holding blogs accountable”.

I don’t have that kind of time. Does he think my mom makes all of my meals while I sit in her basement and play video games?

/returns to GTA IV
/calls mom for more cheezy poofs

05.15.08 at 3:33 pm

casserolemistake

Rorschach Response: That picture looks a lot like Big Daddy Balls. Does that make me a Kansas City faggot?

05.15.08 at 3:57 pm

swing4

word.

i read blogs to ESCAPE from the industry finger pointing and navel gazing.